| Submit your comments on this article |
| Science & Technology |
| The First Flight On Another World Wasn't on Mars. It Was on Venus, 36 Years Ago |
| 2021-04-22 |
| [AirSpaceMag] Cool as it is, Ingenuity does not mark the dawn of extraterrestrial aviation. The world was thrilled this week as NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter pulled off something truly novel (see video above)—the first powered, controlled flight on another planet. But if you paid close attention, the precise wording of that accomplishment included qualifiers. Like the Wright brothers’ airplane, the Mars helicopter was preceded by balloons. In Ingenuity’s case it was a pair of aerobots that rode along with the Soviet Vega 1 and 2 Venus spacecraft and flew through the Venusian atmosphere in 1985. The episode is recounted in Jay Gallentine’s lively 2016 history of planetary exploration, Infinity Beckoned, from which the following excerpt is adapted. |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #7 ^Just a Native name old chap. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2021-04-22 17:33 |
| #6 ^ Barsoom not Mars ;) |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2021-04-22 17:25 |
| #5 ^Burroughs' Mars not Wells'. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2021-04-22 16:04 |
| #4 ^ Couldn't have. They had only tripedal tanks by our late 1800s if I remember correctly. |
| Posted by: Dron66046 2021-04-22 15:54 |
| #3 I deplore Terra-centrism. How do you know Martians weren't flying a million years ago? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2021-04-22 15:37 |
| #2 Venus was lighter than air, while Mars is heavier than air. Not the same thing at all. |
| Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance 2021-04-22 15:30 |
| #1 Ingenuity is reusable, and will be making multiple flights. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2021-04-22 07:47 |